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Nutrients for the Aging Brain Video
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- Nutrients for the Aging Brain Video
In this health video you will learn which nutrients are needed for the aging brain.
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Female: Are there specific brain nutrients that we need as we age in our—we have age-related cognitive decline, that kind of thing? Are there some that we could be using? Dr. Gary Kohls: Oh yeah, definitely, yeah. L-carnitine are CLL carnitine. Carnitine is a very important one for our brain health. And improves everything, but especially useful for memory. Phosphatidyl Serine— Female: That one, yes. Dr. Gary Kohls: Is one that is important—age related cognitive decline is probably accumulative malnutrition or exposure to toxins such as psychotropic drugs that may be what's happening for a years before that. An interesting example is the physician who found out that his mother, age 60 had like 30% shrinkage of her brain. And she was always in good shape, she ate well, she exercised, he was in tiptop condition. The only risk factor that doctor can think of is that she took every prescription drug her doctor recommended. She took Valium and she took Prozac, and she took al these drugs. And that was the only thing that in that in mother’s history that could have accounted for this, the Alzimheir’s. So she had Alzimheir’s after three of her brain. So, we know that these are toxic substances, and neurotoxic drugs. And who knows, maybe she was eating nutrasweet and splendor and all bunch of other MSGs which all toxins. So what we need to do is the long term prevention. We need to avoid all the things that can lead to that. And Kris, the industry doesn’t think there is any—they don’t try to figure out what the causes of it, or they just say, “Oh, it’s there. Maybe it’s these abnormal proteins?” You know, they do all these research. Female: Inflammation. Dr. Gary Kohls: Yeah, inflammation, they don’t want to admit. Female: That’s not— Dr. Gary Kohls: That’s right, that was pretty big, yeah. Parkinson’s disease for instance is highly correlated with pesticide exposure. So, farmers that use pesticides and herbicides and are exposed to these poisons are highly, are very highly prone to getting Parkinson’s disease. Well, Parkinson’s disease, anybody will get if the substantia nigra, one of the little nuclei, protein nuclei in the brain. One-ninth—80% of the nerves are destroyed there. And with age, you know, we knock off some 80% and everybody gets Parkinson’s disease. You know, the expression on the face and the tremor and the stooped gait and depression and it’s common, the nightmares are common. Well, the correlation there is with solvents, solvents are the other one, you know, if you’re—other than that, it dissolves fats, solvents is all fat. So, you’re exposed to gasoline fumes or—or pesticides and herbicides. You’re probably at high risk of getting—of degenerative disease such as Parkinson’s or Alzimheir’s, etcetera. So what we—so, by then, can we reverse it? No. Female: Right. Dr. Gary Kohls: When brain cells die, they’re gone. You know, you do not reproduce brain cells. Brain cells could not reproduce themselves, so they can’t regenerate. They might—the surviving ones or the ones that are just wounded, near death, maybe can be revived. And so, I never say, you can’t revive them. So, maybe the remaining ones aren’t dead yet, they’re just on death door. Maybe they can be revived with appropriate nutritional supplements. So, that’s where we then use the antioxidants. I would give a person with cognitive decline n-acetyl-cysteine which is the precursor for glutathione and the brain and the liver in need of lots of glutathione to kill toxic substances, and lots of fish oil. And then, I would use immuno acids that are useful in memory and—such as serotonin or the precursors of serotonin. Female: Such as? Dr. Gary Kohls: Such as 5-HTP, 5-hydroxytryptophan or tryptophan. And I would use tyrosine which is a precursor of dopamine or epinephrine which are help with acuity and memory and things like that. And then, just avoid anything that might possibly be a toxic substance. So, the food needs to be leaned up too. Of course, nursing hom